Rattle Snake Ledge, Rattle Snake Mountain

Round Trip Distance to summit: 8 miles, Round Trip Distance to Ledge: 2.6 miles,

Elevation Gain to summit: 2,800' ft, Elevation Gain to Ledge: 1,175 ft

What A day! Boy, did us Seattleites earn that weekend after those months of rain. It seems like whenever I plan on going to Rattlesnake Mt, we have great weather. We met in a park and ride and carpooled out to the trailhead. This is a relatively nearby hike, and very accessible in almost any weather. Just take exit 32 off of I-90 and then head south until you see the sign for the Rattlesnake Ledge trail. There are some nice parking lots there with port-a-pots, etc. The trail seems to have gotten a lot more attention in this last year, and there are some nice signs up. Another great thing about this trip: no avalanche danger!

We arrived at the trailhead about 8:45AM, and started hiking about 9. We only saw a couple people on the way up. The Rattlesnake Ledge trail attracts the crowds on a good day, but the crowds don't really start to arrive until later in the day. Stu, Ron, Alexandra, Paul, John and I arrived at the top of the Ledge shortly before 10AM. The views were great (as usual). It was kind of windy up there, but that didn't stop us from hanging out for a long time. We spent over 1.5 hours on top. It's amazing how fast time flies when you're on a summit in good weather. There was a little snow and ice in the shadows, but the Ledge was almost completely bare and dry. John, being the spelunker that he is, explored the cave like crack on the top. He must have been pretty deep in there, because it took a couple of blasts with my ""Storm"" whistle to get him back out.

The Ledge was enough for Ron and Stu, so they headed back while we continued on towards the summit. Although the Ledge can be crowded at times, the trail to the summit appears to be mostly untraveled (especially in the winter). We saw one set of snowshoe prints up there, but never encountered anyone. The trail heads west up the ridge with some nice viewpoints at the top of rock cliffs. You head through a forest with low head clearance in spots, and then come out to an open area with nice views east to Chester Morse Lake. Hardly anyone makes it past here in the winter, as the snow usually starts to get deep. Snowshoes are required to make it to the summit. After this open area, you can then follow some plastic streamers tied to branches to wind your way through a pretty, young conifer forest. The evergreen limbs were blanketed in fresh, powdery snow. The snow was deep and dry as it was completely shaded by the young trees. An alternate route is to take a logging trail, but I really enjoyed this narrow path through the forest. Eventually, you do make it to a logging road, which should be excellent for X-country skiers.

We made it to the East Viewpoint, which sits about 150 ft below the summit. There's an ice covered radio tower at the top of the summit. If you stick to the logging roads, you will come to a fork where there are a couple of big bumps in the road; take the left fork here. Other than that one fork, always choose the right-hand fork. You will always be gaining altitude until the last stretch which will take you to the ""east viewpoint"". The views of the Snoqualmie valley are fantastic. It appears from here that you are higher up than the top of Mt Si. If you want to make it to the summit, you will need to go left at the last fork in the logging road. If you find yourself descending on a road, you will know to back up and go left on that last fork. However, if you continue to descend on the right fork, you do get better views to the north than at the summit. Snow depth up there had to be 4-5+ feet. This is a great trip that I recommend especially during periods of high avalanche danger (like this entire winter).